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Well, really on Wednesday morning. But I wish we had done a special midnight release this Tuesday night. Here is the cover below. I’m not doing my usual process blogs for these Sandman covers because some of that will be used for the Special Editions versions for each issue. And I’m not doing any thumbnails for composition on these either, so I can’t even show that. I’m letting them dictate to me as I draw and paint what the full compositions will be, letting them be dreamed up as I work, so to speak. This becomes extremely evident for the cover to issue 3 when you see that later.

Just read the issue. Beautiful work, and just the beginning of a journey we’ve been waiting years to see realized. (even though we didn’t know it till now) Amazing amazing stuff. Still processing it after reading through a couple times. Can’t wait to see where this is going. As both a Sandman fan from the beginning and a longtime JHW fan, a dream come true. Truly, a legendary read!

WOW! I couldn’t have been happier when I read Sandman Overture #1 yesterday – this is story-telling at its finest! Such an eye feast! I look forward to selling LOTS of this and talking with my friends / customers about their reactions! Also, JH, I didn’t know you were such a huge ELO fan (just saw your list of music you listened to while drawing the first issue)! Hi to Wendy and hopes to a great Halloween to the both of you!

Wow, awesome review of this issue over at TheMarySue … to quote – “A review of Overture should not fail to include comments on J.H. Williams’ art. The editor in me doesn’t want to say something like “Williams was born to illustrate Sandman” but the reader in me sure does. I mean, anyone familiar both with him and with Sandman gasp out loud when we heard he’d been put on the project. We knew this was coming. Williams deftly manages the issue’s shifts between settings, which in a Sandman story doesn’t just mean interiors and exteriors, but also being able to draw a character transitioning from the Waking World into Dreaming even when that dream is near identical to reality. If there’s a complaint I ever have about Williams it can be that his page layouts sometimes sacrifice readability for overall aesthetic value, but I never found myself confused about where to put my eyes in Overture #1, and there was a particularly effective page spread that I got half way through before I realized, unsettlingly, that it was teeth. And then there’s the last few pages of the issue, about which I will say nothing more.”

Hi sir!
First of all, I just wanted to tell you that you are an amazing artist and that you are an inspiration for me. 😀
Second, I was just wondering what material do you use when you make colored artworks( for example for The Sandman Ouvertures series)? And, do you use ink washes for grey tones also?